Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

1 – Lack of maintenance contract

Very few SMEs still have maintenance contracts on their on-site phone systems – often because they are so old they are no longer supported. This seems like good value while they work but when they break it is often terminal and the organisation can be without phones for days. 

2 - Cost

Telephone calls are 5% of what they cost 20 years ago and because your customer has not seen monthly charges going up too much they think they are doing well. The reality is they are paying three or four times the monthly charge of an up-to-date cloud voice system, which includes all of their calls.

3 - Professional call answering

Your customers have got used to the idea that their phone system can’t handle out-of-hours, public holidays, multiple calls and even busy lamp fields, showing who is on the phone before transferring. Often staff cannot pick up valuable sales and support calls even if they want to. Your customers would love to have an automatic call distribution system but consider such features outside of their budget; as well as the idea that the name of the person calling in might ‘pop’ onto their computer screen.

Step 1 - Provide the internet connectivity

In our experience whoever quotes the customer first for connectivity is three times more likely to win the business. 95% of SMEs go with the cheapest quote as they see internet connectivity as a commodity. Jola’s strategy is to help partners win the connectivity business. We have a pricing tool which resellers and dealers can access from their mobile in customer meetings to retrieve information on what is available and the best price in minutes.

Leased line contracts tend to be on three-year deals, which brings in recurring revenues over that timeframe and the ability to upsell cloud-hosted applications like voice.

Step 2 – Provide the knowledge and experience

When the customer is ready to consider their first cloud applications, hosted CRM, hosted telephony etc. they will turn to their trusted advisor. IT and telecommunications partners who have the knowledge and experience as well as range of products and services to help them make the right choice.

We have been talking for years about the tipping point. That point in time when internet connectivity is fast enough, cheap enough and reliable enough for organisations to benefit from the cloud. Jola’s experience has been that many SMEs are still struggling with broadband and this is inhibiting their adoption of cloud services. Superfast broadband and dedicated circuits for businesses are now available at around 20% of the cost of traditional leased lines.

UK SMEs are lagging behind when it comes to the adoption of ‘The Cloud’ when their only way of accessing critical applications and data is over an unpredictable, insecure, best-efforts broadband circuit. If SMEs are dissatisfied with their internet connection when it is being used for web browsing and email, they are unlikely to run their telephone system, accounts packages and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems over it too.

1 – To give them more functionality

Premium Broadsoft hosted telephony licences come with just under 50 features and add-ons. You can run one telephone system over several sites and manage calls as if you were all in the same building. Auto Attendant is available so you can set up options for callers to choose and then create call queues so calls are answered by the next available agent. Music on hold is available, so is video calling and conference calling. Bundles are available with the latest handsets where busy lamp fields show who is on the phone.

2 – To reduce costs

Hosting business applications, such as telephony, in the cloud typically has low upfront costs, as solutions are sold on a per-seat-per-month basis. There may be a small set-up fee, however it is possible to upgrade to a feature-rich phone system, with the latest IP handsets for under £10 a month per extension, including unlimited UK landline and mobile calls.

1 – To give them the advantages of faster technologies available

Fibre Ethernet is a fibre optic cable connected all the way from the exchange into the customer’s premises. Due to the cost of planning, equipment and engineering work this is usually the most expensive technology, often taking the longest time to install. Where a carrier has already terminated a fibre in a building (known as a ‘lit’ building), lead times and costs reduce dramatically. Available speeds are practically unlimited and are not distance dependent.

FTTC is a broadband service built on BT Openreach infrastructure where speeds of up to 80Mb/s downstream are attainable by limiting the length of copper that the service has to run over. This is achieved by running fibre from the serving exchange to cabinets closer to the customers’ premises. FTTC can be supplied over an existing telephone line, which can continue to be used for making and receiving calls. FTTC is a contended service and at peak times the amount of bandwidth available may reduce. It is much more stable and reliable than standard broadband. Virgin Media Business offer a similar product with speeds up to 300Mbs. There are also a number of niche carriers that tend to target areas not served by BT or Virgin e.g. business parks.

EFM (Ethernet First Mile) is delivered using copper from the exchange and pairs are ‘bonded’ together to increase the maximum speed attainable. Speeds of up to 35Mb/s are achievable dependent upon how far the customer site is from the serving exchange.This is a leased line and both upstream and downstream are uncontended.

Ethernet over Fibre To The Cabinet (EoFTTC) uses copper from a local fibred cabinet to the customer’s premises. It comes with its own dedicated telephone line which is usually included in the price. At the exchange, rather than being connected to a carrier’s broadband network, it is plugged into their Ethernet network. This creates an uncontended, symmetrical business-grade leased line. EoFTTC has a maximum symmetrical speed of 20Mb/s.

Fibre Ethernet leased lines offer symmetrical, uncontended speeds up to 10GB. They are popular with larger companies that need more, dedicated bandwidth and with organisations that rely heavily on their internet connection for their core business.

As trusted suppliers to the SME market you may be asked to recommend or supply new services. This may result in a search for a new supplier to partner with. What five things should you look for when finding a new supplier?

According to a recent survey conducted by Sage, 57% of employees say the availability of flexible working in their workplace is important to them. This is one of the many reasons more and more businesses are turning to the cloud.

Hiring, training and retaining good staff is not an easy task. If you can offer flexibility, you often get loyalty in return. There is a proven link between satisfied employees and satisfied customers.

Cloud-hosted applications like Office 365, accountancy packages such as Xero and CRM packages like SalesForce are all accessible remotely with a reliable internet connection.

With hosted telephony platforms such as JolaPhone, calls can be answered and transferred by employees remotely as if they were sat at their desk. Companies can offer more flexible working and route calls to remote workers. This is also useful in busy periods as an overflow, routing calls to part-time staff working from home to ensure call answer targets are met and fewer calls are missed.

Businesses continue to operate efficiently and can also offer flexibility to employees who need to work remotely or from home. They often feel more valued by the company and much more motivated to help grow the business as part of a team.

Demand for business internet connectivity in the UK is being driven by the availability of faster more reliable, fibre and Ethernet technologies. Our records show that leased line pricing has reduced by 20% in the last six months, helping to further fuel demand.

Companies are looking for faster, more reliable internet connectivity to access cloud-hosted applications such as CRM, accountancy and telephony applications. Cloud applications tend to be pay per seat per month and come without the investment in servers and internal management.

Businesses are looking to their trusted suppliers to advise them on what is available and expect the best possible price, smooth installations and excellent technical support.

IT and telecoms providers are looking for suppliers that can offer them the widest choice of carrier services at best possible pricing with tools to make quoting and ordering easy. They are looking for experienced providers who understand the carrier installation processes and potential barriers to sale, such as lead times, wayleave and excess construction charges. 

Until recently small businesses have avoided adding auto-attendants and queues to their telephone system, mainly because of the prohibitive cost but also because they felt it put callers off.

Now with changes in consumer behavior and the growth in cloud telephone systems this is no longer the case. Callers to a business now expect to be answered by an automated system and if the voice is succinct and professional their initial perception of that company is enhanced. As long as they are transferred at the next step to a human being they will often view the company as more organised, more professional and bigger than perhaps they actually are.

With cloud voice every individual gets their own direct phone number and for callers that don’t know who they want to talk to (like sales enquiries) they are handled professionally and directed immediately to someone that can help them. Even in very small companies where everyone mucks-in with incoming calls, employees can see on the screen what the call is about before they answer it.

According to McKinsey, Machine 2 Machine SIM revenues are set to increase dramatically in the next 7 years to over £11bn by 2022. Demand is being driven by the availability of fast, cost effective, reliable 4G and the development of smart devices.

IT and telecommunications companies servicing the UK SME market are experiencing this surge in demand first hand and are looking for a trusted supplier with a comprehensive management portal for maximum control and minimum cost.

Small businesses are looking to 4G for faster, more flexible connectivity on a monthly commitment. Their IT and telecommunications suppliers need a management portal to manage large estates of SIMs, where they can monitor usage and alert users approaching their data limits, back-dating bolt-ons to the beginning of the month to completely avoid additional monthly charges.